Forever I'll Wait
by Mika Kitsune
Summary: Yoko Kurama, infamous fox bandit, is up to his tricks. He's set his sights on a priceless and heavily guarded diamond. He requires another fox's help. Enter trouble... I did this a while ago. A long while ago... Be gentle please... OCYoko
1. The Meeting

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

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A fox spirit with golden eyes and long silvery hair walked into a bar filled with low class demons. Many whispers of "It's Yoko Kurama," came to the fox's ears and he smirked. It was nice to hear people utter his infamous name in fear.

Though many demons continued to stare in awe they slowly went back to being in their drunken stupors. The fumes of intoxication made the fox scrunch his nose in disgust. Oh well, he was going to find her.

He slowly made his way through a crowd of demons that surrounded a stage. As he neared the front many dancers came into view. The performers were of many origins. Fire demons, Koorim, lightening demons, ferries; they were all there in great numbers.

All except for the rare fox spirit.

Of that origin there was only one.

She had long black hair and eyes of the blackest night. She wore a short sleeveless crimson shirt and a flowing red skirt that hugged her hips causing her nicely tanned waist to be bare and making her stand out from all the others, which were garbed in black just to serve that purpose. The girl also carried a scarf that matched her outfit and twirled with her movements.

She spun around and her skirt flared out and danced as a flame would. She did many graceful crossovers and saucy turns. The other dancers were beautiful but she was the flame that made the fire.

Once she knelt before Yoko and graced her scarf over his neck and shoulders. She kissed him passionately arousing the whoop from the crowd that she had intended. She moved away from the fox spirit with a smile though her actions had not appeared to have affected him in the least.

The girl again began to dance. She finally finished off the show with a series of twirl. In split second timing she stopped in a sexy pose and a screen of smoke swirled around the other dancers and herself.

Yoko walked out of the bar. That was her. There was no doubt in his mind that that girl was her.

He went into some woods nearby and jumped into a tall tree. It was best to wait for her to make her move. He closed his eyes and prepared to sleep but his ears pricked up at the sound of twigs breaking. He looked towards where he thought the noise had come from, his keen golden eyes picking up the girl's features now dressed in a black training outfit and long black gloves. Her long ebony hair flowed behind her as she ran like the wind. She carried a large glowing red gem in her arms.

'A little sooner than I had originally anticipated but I'll go with it' thought Yoko as he jumped to the ground. His eyes quickly plotted the path that she was bound to take and headed for a cave to the side of it. He walked inside the cavern. There he crouched down and waited.

Sure enough, the girl's footsteps came closer to the cave. Just as she streaked past its opening Yoko caught her and pulled her deeper into the cavern, his hand clamped over her mouth.

After a few moments they heard many voices outside the cave and many feet running. "Get that bitch!" the voices yelled as they ran past the cave door.

After a few moments Yoko slowly let out the breath that he had been holding. The girl was struggling against his strong grasp but to no avail.

After awhile she stopped and lowered her head in surrender. The fox spirit finally let her go. She whirled around to face him.

"Who are you, what do you want, and why did you save me?" the fox asked.

"I think that I'll be the one to ask the questions," he said his eyes narrowing.

The girl stepped back, still holding the gem, and sized Yoko up but remained silent.

"You are Kaori the thief correct?" Yoko asked his eyes daring her to answer no.

"Depends. Friend or foe?" she inquired.

"Neither," Yoko replied. "I wish to form an alliance with Kaori."

"And into whose alliance is she joining?" the girl questioned.

"Yoko Kurama's," the fox answered. She eyed him doubtfully. "And why, if I may, would the great Yoko Kurama require her services?"

"You are one of the few like me. You're an expert in the art of thievery, as I saw tonight you would do anything for your prize and you don't believe in mercy," the fox replied. "You didn't answer my question," said Kaori.

Yoko smirked. "You still don't believe that I am Yoko Kurama," he said as a matter of fact.

"Why should I? What have you done for me to trust you?" she asked.

"I don't care if you trust me or not but you will believe me." Yoko barely moved his arms then relaxed once more.

Kaori gave him a confused look and noticed that her arms felt weightless. She looked down to find that the gem, her prize, had been taken. She looked back up at the fox spirit whom she now knew to be Yoko Kurama, the master thief. "I ask again what you want of me. I have a feeling that if you had wanted me killed I'd be dead right now," Kaori said her eyes black stones.

"On the count you would be correct but I require your assistance in obtaining the Black Death," Yoko said.

"You want me to help you catch a disease?" Kaori asked curtly.

Yoko frowned. "You know very well that I mean the priceless diamond that lies within the king's vaults," Yoko looked the girl in the eye, "The one that you nearly lost your life in getting."

Kaori's eyes narrowed, "That accursed diamond is unattainable. I am the only demon to ever even survive an attempt of stealing it."

"Making you the only demon alive that knows the true nature of the traps and soldiers that guard it," Yoko said with a smile.

Kaori shook her head, "I am afraid that I cannot be a part of your alliance. As I have said before the traps are impossible to get past. I've spent the majority of my life after that experience wondering what I could have done differently. There is nothing. Each time I end up dead or at least I should die."

"Alone, yes, it is impossible. But partnered with me, nothing is impossible," Yoko replied. Kaori stared at Yoko for a moment.

"You realize that we are gambling with our lives correct?" she finally asked.

"Isn't that just a wonderful feeling?" Yoko replied with his own question.

"I've always enjoyed it myself… Very well, Yoko you have yourself a partner," Kaori extended her hand toward Yoko, which he took, and sealed their alliance.

Yoko smiled to himself. Through Kaori's foolish thrill for adventure he had tricked her. After the Black Death was in his possession he would dispose of her and the most unflawed jewel in any of the three worlds would be his even if her strong will, fiery spirit, and her slightly overly confident nature paired with her natural beauty thoroughly intrigued him.

Kaori cocked her head to the side in confusion as to what Yoko was smiling about.

"We start off at dawn. As you know the king's vault is a good two month's worth of traveling away," he said his back to Kaori and heading towards the cave's entrance.

"Yoko wouldn't it be safer to travel at night?" Kaori questioned. Yoko looked over his shoulder. "No. Bounty hunters will be expecting that. No, we'll travel by daylight in our fox forms."

Kaori nodded and watched her newest partner walk out of the cave. She sat down and laid her head on a rock ledge, immediately falling asleep and totally forgetting the gem that Yoko had stolen from under her nose.

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R and R my loves! 


	2. The Hunters

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

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In the heat of midday two foxes walked side by side. One was large more resembling a wolf than a fox with a sleek silver coat and crimson eyes. The other was smaller with a silky ebony coat and shimmering black eyes.

"Please Yoko," whined the black fox, "let us rest for awhile. We haven't rested since the beginning of our journey six weeks ago."

The silver fox looked down at Kaori. Her beautiful black coat had begun to lose its glossy sheen and the way that she picked up her feet and dropped them heavily where she had once been light footed screamed that she needed rest.

"No, we must get to the vault as soon as possible," he growled. "Honestly what use do you expect I will be if I am dead tired when we get there?" she asked her dark eyes flickering with black flames at being told no. He attempted to stare the girl down but she just calmly looked back up at him with an air of indifference around her.

"Fine," he finally said. She smirked at him, knowing that the verbal battle the he had just lost was one of the only battles that he had ever lost. She trotted to the side of the road where she laid down and instantly fell asleep.

'How in the three worlds did I get myself into this?' Yoko asked himself. 'The lazy good for nothing little bitch! Calm down. I need to get the diamond' he thought lying down next to her. Suddenly his nose caught a terrible scent. 'Humans' he thought his hair bristling. He looked around, his sharp eyes picking up nothing. 'Where are they?' His sensitive ears twitched when he heard branches above him move and he looked up in just enough time to see a bowstring become taught and the arrow fly.

It embedded itself deep in his shoulder. He let out a yelp of pain, then fell, and lay still.

The yelp awakened Kaori and she jumped up. She saw the humans climb down from the tree. There were three in all each talking of the great price they'd get for the silver fox's fur. Her hair bristled and she snarled her warning positioning herself in front of Yoko, prepared to pounce in a moment's notice.

"He has a pretty little mate too? This is our lucky day," said one particularly hairy human. His bowstring became taught. Kaori swooped down on him and tore open his throat. The only thing that he'd had time to do was make a gurgling sound before collapsing in a heap.

Blood poured from the open wound and splattered on Kaori's face. Her eyes flicked and her very soul howled with the need for more blood shed, more death. She whirled around to the other two men and lunged. The unfortunate man that her sharp fangs caught was torn to shreds when she was sure all the blood that she could have shed was on the ground bright red and smelling of a wonderfully familiar metal. The last hunter was already gone when she prepared for her last pounce. She bounded after him, her insatiable want for the kill now tearing through her body and seizing control of her mind. Her final amount of sanity cried out.

"Yoko!"

Grasping that sanity she skid to a halt. Her vision began to clear of the mist that had before clouded her mind. Yoko needed her now, even if he was a controlling egotistical self-righteous bastard.

Sighing at having her needs put second, something that she found happened quite often since she and Yoko had become so call "partners", she swiftly made her way back to the roadside and found that in his arrogance and pride Yoko had dragged himself away from the road, trying his best to keep from having his ego shot down.

Following the trail of blood that the fox had left behind Kaori found that this had cost him his consciousness. Shaking her head, Kaori padded over to him, took him by the nape of his neck and dragged him into some shrubbery. She nudged him with her nose and made a gentle growling noise.

After seeing that he truly was unconscious Kaori bit down on the feathered end of the arrow and let it slide out. Blood gushed from the wound that the arrow had made. She licked it until the blood flow had slowed so that she could examine him more easily. The wound was dreadfully close to his vital organs.

"Conceited bastard," she growled. "You shouldn't have dragged yourself so far. You made the wound worse." She scowled then put her paw and head on Yoko's and lay there, silently protecting the injured fox.

Yoko opened his eyes. It was pitch black outside. He looked up and figured from how high the sliver of moon barely visible between the tree branches that hung thick overhead it must have been around midnight. He stood for the first time realizing that he was in his human form. He shrugged and stretched out his legs. He must have been unable to maintain his fox form in his previously injured state. His keen nose twitched at the putrid smell of old blood and scanned his surrounding with sharp golden eyes. Upon turning he caught sight of two bloody and very dead men lying on the ground a few yards away.

That's right.

He'd been shot by an arrow… and Kaori had… Kaori? Where had that bitch gotten to this time?

Suddenly the bushes began to rustle. Yoko's hardened muscles tensed automatically from years of traps and ambushes. Out of the shrubs came a black fox with a branch of red berries in her mouth. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Yoko. A growl came from her throat before she laid the berries at his feet and in a flash of purple light transformed into Kaori.

"Why are you up? You're going to make it worse," she warned with a wave to his shoulder. Yoko looked down to discover that his shirt had been removed and had been replaced with clean white bandages that he hadn't noticed before. "I don't need your help," he replied coldly.

"Good, because helping you is the one thing that I hate more than spending time with you," she hissed, slightly hurt by the fact that Yoko didn't care that she'd tried her best to tend to him.

"Then why did you?" Yoko questioned, his cold, steady gaze unwavering. "I don't need you to hold me back and with an injured arm like that you would by weeks," she answered also holding her unwavering gaze.

Yoko was silent for a moment. "What are the berries for?" he finally asked. "They're floralite berries," she replied, "They'll help you heal faster." She gestured for Yoko to sit, which he did after a moment of contemplation of whether he should or shouldn't accept her help. He chose the latter.

She unwrapped the wound and squeezed some of the berries juice on the tips of her fingers. "This is going to sting a little," she warned. Yoko nodded. She applied the juice onto the wound as gently as possible. Yoko winced as a fiery sensation swept through his arm.

"Define a little," he grunted. "Quiet," she chastised. She gently blew on the wound and cooled the sensation. Yoko jerked his arm away and pain shot through him. "You shouldn't do that," Kaori said, slightly amused at Yoko's behavior. Yoko was quiet as she rebandaged his arm.

"We'd better travel by night in our demon forms from now on. The humans will be looking for two possessed foxes now," Kaori said, breaking the silence. "But-" Yoko was cut off by Kaori pressing a finger against his lips.

"Don't argue," she commanded. "Traveling by night will be easier on your arm." She put her finger down and Yoko looked like he was about to protest again. "If you argue with me I swear I will smash every single one of these berries into that arm of yours," she warned, daring him with her dark sparkling eyes to try her.

Yoko was silent though he glared at her, his eyes brimming with contempt. "Hate me as you will. I really don't care. We are going to rest until tomorrow night," she said as she stood. Yoko opened his mouth to argue but Kaori cut him off again, "Don't test me." In a flash of purple Kaori was a fox again and curled up in a little ball. 'Who in the seven hells does she think she's talking to?' he thought furiously. 'I must tolerate her. I must get the Black Death.'

He changed into his fox form and fell asleep.

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R and R please!


	3. The Kiss

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

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Kaori and Yoko are walking through a forest. They were quiet. "Why didn't you run?" Yoko finally asked. "What do you mean?" Kaori asked. "When hunters shot me you didn't run. Why?" he asked again. "I don't know. Something just told me to protect you, that's all. Blame it on instinct," she replied with a shrug. Yoko went silent in thought. Kaori's ears twitched. She swerved around and pressed her back up against a tree. "Someone's coming," she said in a low voice.

Yoko closed his eyes and focused on listening. He heard many running footsteps only a few hundred yards away. "Come on," he hissed, grabbing Kaori's hand and running. Yoko continued to listen to the humans. From their conversation, they were obvious bounty hunters, the humans that Yoko had been trying so hard to avoid. Worse still they were getting closer. "Hurry," he urged. The hunters were now in sight.

BAM!

The sound of a gunshot cracked in their ears. More quickly followed. Gun powder filled their noses and their mouths. Kaori began to cough but continued running forward. Another gunshot and Kaori clutched at her side. Nevertheless she ran for dear life. The two foxes ran out of the woods and stopped. They stood before a drop-off cliff with rapids at the bottom.

There was no choice.

"We have to jump. Yoko, I can't swim," Kaori said gripping her bleeding side. Underneath his calmly featured face Yoko was panicking. He needed to get out of there but He couldn't leave the girl behind. How the hell was he supposed to do this? Making a quick decision he picked up Kaori.

"What-?" Kaori asked. "Hang on," he said as he tightened his grip on her. He jumped over the cliff's edge. When they hit the rapids they tossed and turned. Yoko felt like Kaori was going to be torn from his arms but he clung to her. Kaori just knew that her lungs were going to burst and couldn't hold her breath any longer. She gasped for air but only managed to fill her lungs with water. They slammed into rocks. Yoko tried to grab one but slipped and almost dropped Kaori. She clung as tight as she could onto Yoko's body.

Finally the rapids stopped and the water was smooth. Yoko swam to shore. He laid Kaori on the ground. She moaned and began coughing up the water that she had swallowed. Her wound was still bleeding badly and she was shivering.

"Kaori?" Yoko asked his hand hovering just over her face. She gave no response, not even opening her eyes. Yoko quickly and gently removed the bullet from her side. Even in her unconscious state Kaori screamed from the pain. Yoko grabbed her and held her tight, muffling the noise with his shirt.

After she finally stopped he carefully laid her back down. He tore off some of his shirt and wrapped it around her waist. Quickly, he built a fire to warm her but she continued to shiver. He gathered her in his arms to warm her with his own body heat. She finally ceased shaking and slept peacefully.

He began to wonder why he was acting this way. Why did he care so much for this little fox spirit's life? 'To get the diamond' he finally convinced himself. Regardless of what his mind said to him the heart that no one thought he had told a different story. One that he did not wish to hear and brushed to the side.

The diamond was all that mattered. The diamond and himself… and Kaori, his heart added. He shook away the thought and refused to look down at Kaori's face, afraid of what his heart would tell his mind to do. Even with his attempts he saw Kaori's face in his mind. He saw her smile. He saw her healing him. He saw her dancing on the stage. His lips tingled at the memory of there mouths touching. He could distinctly taste her citrus-like flavor in his mouth.

'What would it be like to taste that again? Would it be the same as before?'

He shook away the thought. Why would he want to do that? Stupid fox… He glanced down at Kaori's face, gentle and quite vulnerable from slumber. She was definitely a beautiful one. Her long black hair pooled around her like a dark veil and her skin stood soft and pale against it. Her long dark eyelashes brushed against her cheeks. And her lips… Oh how he wanted to taste those beautiful light pink lips…

He rolled his eyes at himself and decided that until he tasted her again he would not be satisfied. Much like the bloodlust, this feeling would not be shrugged off. He lowered his face to hers and gently let their mouths connect. He ran his tongue over her lips, nipped them, sucked at them. Yes… she still tasted like freshly picked oranges… He smiled against her lips and finally pulled away.

Alright… so Kaori was better for some things than others…

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R and R! Please?


	4. The True Diamond

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

* * *

"This is it Yoko," said Kaori as they approached an enormous purple palace. Two long months had passed. With Yoko's plants Kaori had made a complete recovery. Yoko's heart however hadn't. This knew 'mock bloodlust' as he called it would not be shrugged off no matter how many times he stole kisses while she slept.

"Just stick with the strategy," he replied curtly, currently in a terrible mood over his 'bloodlust'. Kaori nodded. She walked up to the side of the palace and began to climb it using her claws like a mountain climber would his ropes to haul her up. Yoko followed.

They were up a good fifty flights before Kaori stopped and opened a window. She peered inside and when she saw that the coast was clear climbed in. She helped Yoko up and walked toward a bookcase. She stopped in front it and drew a bow and arrow from the air. She pulled the arrow tight against the string, ready to attack. Yoko pulled out his infamous rose whip and walked towards the shelf. He pulled out a book, it's old and tattered leather binding bearing the golden title 'The Bubonic Plague'.

The bookcase swung open and there, almost waiting for the fox spirits, were a hundred or so soldiers. Together Kaori and Yoko sliced through them, neither receiving even a scratch. They didn't waste time looking at their prey but pressed on.

Yoko suddenly felt a stone move under his feet. "Duck," Kaori commanded calmly. Yoko immediately complied without thought or hesitation, like a well oiled machine. Just as he knelt down a huge arrow brushed the tips of his hair. Kaori caught it and broke it in two.

"Don't move," she said. She jammed half of the arrow into the wall next to her then threw the other end so hard that it stuck into the wall next to Yoko. "Now when you move your foot jump on the arrow," she instructed.

Yoko nodded. He picked up his foot and jumped onto the arrow. Kaori did the same. Where Yoko had once stood more arrows shot from the walls. So many that it would have been impossible to dodge them all. Kaori jumped from her arrow to the top of a statue of a lion covered in hundreds of years' worth of moss, algae, and vines. Yoko followed her lead on the lion on his side.

"Don't-" Kaori didn't get to finish her sentence. A horrible cracking sound came from the walls as they slowly began to close in. "Run!" she yelled. She jumped from her statue and bolted, Yoko at her heels. The walls were getting terribly close when they spotted a part that was not moving in. The problem was that just before it was a huge pit. They kept running and just when it looked like they were about to either be crushed or fall into a seemingly bottomless pit they jumped. Yoko easily cleared but Kaori caught the edge. Her fingers were beginning to slip when Yoko caught her hand and pulled her up. She smiled at him briefly in gratitude.

Then the hissing started.

They looked around to find that black cobras surrounded them from all sides, black hooded heads reared in preparation to attack. The foxes backed up against a wall. "Now what?" Yoko asked turning his head to Kaori but still eyeing the snakes.

A determined look came to Kaori's face. She arched her back and jumped into the middle of the snakes. She landed in a space just small enough for her foot. A cobra reared up and snapped but only caught air as Kaori jumped to another space. A few more spaces and she had reached the other side. She proceeded by climbing up the wall.

Smiling, she waved for Yoko to follow. He nodded and jumped almost getting his ankles nipped several times. He climbed the wall and followed Kaori as she climbed higher. "These people aren't going to give us a break," Yoko grunted as his foot slipped.

"Well we are stealing the most precious jewel in the three realms. Did you think it would be easy?" Kaori questioned with a smirk. She took an arrow that seemed to materialize from the air jammed it into a crack in the wall and jiggled it from side to side. She finally pried open a small space and climbed in. She beckoned for Yoko to follow. To his surprise it was fairly large even though he had to crawl to fit inside.

"It's amazing that we've gotten this far so quickly," Kaori commented, "Last time it took me days to do this plus I was bleeding horribly already." She laughed at herself, "I think I hit every trap in this place." Yoko hadn't heard her words. He was too busy marveling at Kaori's skills. He was amazed at her ability to elude all of these traps. It would have been hard, nearly impossible, to survive by himself up to this point.

Suddenly a small click was heard. Kaori slowly looked down to find the stone that her hand was on had sunken in to the ground. "I see they've updated this place," she laughed nervously.

She took a deep breath. "Okay don't panic," she said more to herself than Yoko. "When I move roll over and to the side," she instructed. Yoko nodded. "Now!" she yelled thrusting herself to the side. Yoko did as well. Steel spikes shot up from the ground where Kaori had been. One was so close to her it scratched her stomach and her blood tricked to the ground. She winced but began to try and wiggle herself away from the spike.

"Stay still," Yoko commanded. As gently as possible he cut away the spike with his rose whip. "Thanks," she smiled, sitting up and resting her back on the wall. She tore off the bottom half of her shirt and wrapped it tight around the cut to keep the blood from dripping. Yoko stared at her bare waist.

"What?" she asked following the trail his eyes were taking to her stomach. She raised an eyebrow. "Why are you staring at me? It's not like you've never seen my waist before." Yoko's face went blank and he pushed in front of her to hide the accursed redness that he knew was creeping up his face and neck. Kaori tilted her head to the side but smiled and followed him. "You shouldn't go so fast. You're going to get us caught in a trap," Kaori said.

Suddenly her ears twitched and she shoved Yoko out of the way of a cage that clattered down. Spikes protruded from its roof. "I… told… you," she huffed.

"Hn," he grunted as he crawled forward more cautiously than before. Kaori shook her head. 'He's such an arrogant creature…' she thought with a sigh as she followed him. At last the fox spirits came to a space large enough for them to stand. It was a square room with the only openings being the one they had just come out of and one across the room. Kaori put her hand in front of Yoko to keep him from walking further.

"Why are we stopping?" he asked slightly annoyed he still hadn't gotten his diamond. She plucked one of the hairs from her head and gently blew it from her gloved hand to the floor. The second it touched the stones the ceiling from that point on crashed down in a solid rock column.

"That's why," she answered tersely. She walked over to a wall and started feeling around the stones, leaving Yoko in his speechless state. Finally one stone sunk in and the wall swung open to reveal another tunnel. Kaori went inside and Yoko followed. The tunnel was long and dark. The foxes were quiet all the way through it, keeping on their toes in case of more surprises. The tunnel finally ended in a stone wall.

"I'm going to tell you right now that this was as far as I got," Kaori said as she pressed several stones that glowed a bright green as her fingers lifted. The wall swung open to reveal a blinding white light. The foxes shielded their eyes until the light was bearable. The only thing inside the room was a small stone pillar.

Nothing was on it.

Yoko had grown to expect things like this and he looked at Kaori. She smiled and walked over to a wall. She inserted one of her slender fingers into a hole that Yoko hadn't seen before. She pressed her ear up against the wall and worked her finger until she heard a click. She smiled. From the middle off the pillar lifted a glass container. Inside of it was their prize.

Suddenly red beams of light shot out from various sections of the room. Kaori seemed unaffected by this and jumped right in. She did a back handspring and a summersault eluding most of the beams. She stayed in a crouching position as she looked back at Yoko.

He was waiting patiently for her to come back. 'Good' she thought. The last thing she wanted was for him to follow her and get hurt.

She went back to her work and did a round off and crossover to finally get to the diamond. Its flawless beauty glittered and reflected in her eyes as she ungloved her hand to reveal sharp nails. With the nails she carved out a circle in the glass. She re-gloved her hand reached in and picked up the diamond from its red velvet cushion. She looked at it realizing that she was holding the ultimate prize and smiled in satisfaction.

Spikes abruptly shot out of the pillar and one sliced open Kaori's stomach. She bent over and clenched her teeth in pain gripping the spike and letting the diamond clatter to the ground. "Kaori!" Yoko yelled as the diamond hit a red beam. The beams disappeared and an alarm went off.

Yoko ran over to Kaori and cut her away from the spike. He picked her up as guards seemed to come out of every wall in the room. "That way Yoko," Kaori said weakly, pointing. "There is a way out." Yoko ran where she pointed and felt around with one hand still holding Kaori with the other. The wall opened and Yoko ran like the wind keeping Kaori pressed up against him so that she wouldn't bleed so badly.

The corridor was long and dark but it finally ended at a stone wall. Kaori weakly raised her hand and an arrow appeared from the air. She put it into the wall and tried as best she could to open the door that she knew was there but failed.

Yoko finally opened the wall and rushed out into the night. He ran deep into some woods and finally stopped at a lake. He laid Kaori down on the soft grass. She moaned and willed her eyes open. Over her stood Yoko, his golden eyes filled with worry. "Yoko… you forgot… the diamond," she whispered. "It doesn't matter," he said, brushing some stray strands of hair from her face. Kaori looked up at Yoko, confused.

"But… It's what we came here for."

"It doesn't matter anymore. You're hurt," he quieted her.

She finally gave him a small painful smile and her stunning dark eyes glittered with tears. "I wish… I wish… that I had told you before. I think love you," she said tears streaking down her face.

Yoko gathered Kaori in his arms and kissed her forehead. When he lifted his mouth from her forehead Kaori pulled him down to her lips. She kissed him deeply and lovingly with more passion than she had ever presented towards anyone before.

"I love you, Kaori," Yoko said when she had finally stopped. "I… love you too, Yoko," she said as she began to feel darkness creep over her.

"Kaori don't leave. I love you and I just found out…" Yoko pleaded. Kaori again willed her eyes open. Death was calling her but Yoko was too and she would do anything to stay with him. She closed her eyes as pain shot through her body. Yoko's face again became worried as he laid her back down. He pulled some floralite berries from his shirt and told her that it was going to sting.

"You would be the one to know," she whispered. She bit her lip until it bled to keep from screaming when he put the berries' juice on her wound.

"Don't do that. I don't need you losing any more blood than you already have," he chastised as he wiped away the blood that had trickled down her chin. He took off his shirt and used it as a makeshift bandage as he tied it around her waist. Its white material was instantly dyed a crimson color by Kaori's blood. The girl's eyes slowly opened and closed by turns as she slipped in and out of consciousness.

"Kaori, don't leave me," Yoko pleaded again, his golden eyes misty with unshed tears. "I'm… trying," she whispered. Yoko again gathered her in his arms. Kaori's head rested perfectly on his chest as if she had always been meant for that purpose. He buried his face in her long black hair and breathed in deeply. The smell of orange blossoms mingled with the metallic smell of blood filled his lungs.

The salty smell of his tears was quickly added. His chest suddenly felt moist and he looked down to find Kaori crying too. "Don't cry," he said kissing the tears from her face. "We're just being fools. You'll be fine and then we can be happy together. I'll even let you tag along on raids."

Kaori nodded and slowly pulled something out from under her clothes. It was the red scarf that she had danced with when they first met. "Yes one day we will be together but until then I must ask you to be patient," she said tying the scarf around his wrist. Yoko began to protest but she pressed her finger against his lips.

"I thought we had already been through the no arguing policy," she smiled.

Yoko's golden eyes became misty once more as she dropped her hand. He nodded, "I'll wait for you Kaori. Forever I'll wait," he said choking back tears. "I love you," Kaori said as she closed her black eyes for the last time.

"I love you…"

* * *

The End! I think... Please tell me if I should continue... I don't know...


End file.
